Tag Archives: Gareth Pugh

Shirt and dress designer by Daphne Guinness, pants from London Punk shop.

Daphne Guinness will be staging her own exhibit at the FIT Museum come September 16. The Daphne Guinness FIT Museum Exhibit is co-curated by her and features over 100 fashion items from her personal collection which include Gareth Pugh, Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy, Shaun Leane (armor jewelry), Tom Ford, Azzedine Alaîa, Chanel, Christian Lacroix to name a few and also clothes designed by Daphne Guinness herself as well as shoes only Daphne Guinness can walk in. It was also reported that this exhibit took two years to prepare for. Check out the rest of the preview below.

Gareth Pugh and MAC Cosmetics threw a cocktail party at The New Museum’s Sky Bar to fete their up coming collaboration which was announced early last month. The Gareth Pugh for MAC Cosmetics will be an exclusive make-up line that has been described as ‘multiple colour products and accessories in special packaging’. The use of multiple colours is quite unlike Gareth Pugh and this is what he has to say about it.

“I intentionally don’t focus on color with my own work. But working with MAC is all about color. What we ended up with is very versatile. It is really beautiful and I am so happy with it.” -Gareth Pugh

Will we see more colour in Gareth Pugh‘s future collections then? Only time will tell. But one thing’s for certain, Alex Box who has worked with Gareth Pugh for a few seasons now will not be assisting in this collection. It will be purely Gareth Pugh and MAC Cosmetics, both of whom have worked with each other since the start of Gareth Pugh‘s career.

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You read that right. Gareth Pugh will be collaborating with make-up giant MAC Cosmetics to launch an exclusive make-up line that has been described as ‘multiple colour products and accessories in special packaging’. Gareth Pugh, multiple colours, these two as we know it don’t really go together. Gareth Pugh has always been known for his monochromatic colour palette that consists of mostly black and grey gothic concoctions. The make-up, done by Illamasqua creative director Alex Box has been mostly such. However, accent colours such as metallic shades and cobalt blue have been used on occasions. Question is, will Alex Box play a part in this collaboration. I particularly like her Art of Darkness collection. This could be mind-blowing if she’s involved because Alex Box has worked with Gareth Pugh for a few seasons now and could ease into the equation. I absolutely cannot wait to see the packaging which the spokesperson described as ‘special’ (i wished another word was used like-‘edgy’ or ‘bold’).

Here are some Alex Box for Gareth Pugh looks.

Of course this is not MAC Cosmetics’ first collaboration. They have previously worked with Barbie, Disney, Hello Kitty and even Wonder Woman from DC Comics among others. Just another day in the office for the people of MAC. But to Gareth Pugh, this could be a huge (big enough) opportunity to rake in some money; to make his business more commercial. We all know Gareth, creative, high fashion almost couture-like but hardly wearable and commercial-very characteristic of London fashion designers.

‘If you, as a fashion designer, you do shows but you don’t sell, it kind of becomes a bit of a vanity project. You know, that’s kind of how I started and that’s how I got going but kind of a more mature point of view it needs to obviously translate into things that sell and that’s a new challenge for me. The two need each other, business and creativity. It’s a weird mix but you need to have that balance, I think, now. Or I need to have that balance now, so I’ve made my peace with that,’ Gareth Pugh revealed.

I think this-the balance between creativity and commerciality-is what every designer should look into. I mean of course that would be ideal from a business perspective if profitability is to be achieved. But if we are talking about couture and high fashion, these are niche areas of the market and how some of them are surviving still surprises me today. For the record, couture is expensive business and most couture houses never recoup the cost of the business. And if you don’t have clients who are interested in your collections, be prepared for huge losses. And remember, these clients are few and far between-mostly royalties, VVIPs and celebrities. Having a stable and loyal clientele is probably the only way to minimise losses.

That’s when a company’s ready-to-wear line and accessories come into play where profit margins are much higher, especially the latter. This is probably what Gareth Pugh is trying to do and I wonder how this collaboration will affect his future collections (read: multiple colour products). The make-up line will be launched in November this year but word is that the products will be used in his Spring/Summer 2012 show in October, with Alex Box at the helm. In other words, it is all business for Gareth Pugh. Well, I’m actually quite excited for him, who knows maybe a Gareth Pugh perfume line is in order?

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For those who have not seen this tribute to Lee Alexander McQueen by Nick Knight. Music by Bjork.

Recently I came across a few videos and it led me into thinking about how new media can be integrated into fashion, particularly the video/film aspect in more groundbreaking concepts. New media can be defined as film, images, music, spoken and written word with the interactive power of telecommunications. This is not something new of course. What you want is something unique and different. A concept that hasn’t been done before. A concept that is still developing and in the experimental stages and relatively new. A concept that could start a trend among other designers. A concept that can make the viewer/audience go ‘WOW’ or ‘That’s interesting’. That is where exclusivity comes into place. You will be recognised as the person who started this trend and not one of the few who followed. Even if your idea is not that great (but also not a snoozy), you are still a pioneer and it puts your brand/name out there; generates publicity.

Blow Up by Loewe. Celebrating 35 years of the Amazona bag. Directed by Hollywood special effects expert James Lima, styled by Katie Grand and starring, model Ana Beatriz Barros.

One of the brands that I want to highlight is Burberry. We all know about Christopher Bailey live streaming his runway shows and many other designers too (though I can’t pinpoint who started it first), but he was actually the first to stream it in 3D for the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 season. The live stream was also shown at a string of parties in New York, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo and Los Angeles which were by invite only and people like us can view the runway show live on their website. Besides the actual show itself, backstage and behind-the-scenes footage were also shown to the global audience. Avant-garde? Yes. You get the idea.

Burberry went even further for their Spring/Summer 2011 showcase-offering viewers the chance to order the collection straight off the runway. However, this was not a new idea. When Halston re-launched in 2008 with the Fall/Winter 2008/2009 collection, they collaborated with Net-A-Porter to sell two dresses right after the runway show on the NAP site. Roland Mouret did it too when he first launched the RM by Roland Mouret line in the Fall/Winter 2007/2008 season. But Burberry wasn’t the only brand doing that that season; Rad Hourani did it too. For the first concept, it was taking live streaming a step further but to be honest, how much further? Showing the live stream at parties (Burberry live streamed their Spring/Summer 2011 collection at their stores too) is a nice touch yes, but 3D? We can definitely do without it. I believe it’s only a trend which won’t become a permanent fixture. Dazed & Confused did a 3D cover. Who else has not done something in 3D you tell me!

Burberry Spring/Summer 2011 Campaign. Do you know of any other labels who have done videos to complement their ad campaigns?

For the Burberry Prorsum Menswear Fall/Winter 2011 show, which just happened, there was the live stream as usual plus complementary photos of looks off the runway which you can order now. If this is going to be a trend, I wonder how much will this affect buyers since the ‘middle man’ has been cut off. Buyers’ guesswork of deciding which clothes are going to sell will be rendered useless to a certain extent as the customers are already picking out which clothes they want. On another note, rain literally came down for the finale as the boys of Burberry came out in raincoats. It certainly made me sit up!

The soundtrack was awesome as usual, featuring Dusty Springfield, Cliff Richard, Muse and Roger Daltrey. But little did I know of the Burberry Acoustic project, introduced in the middle of last year. This is a collaboration between emerging British artistes and the designer label. They even produced an album based on it. Talk about a holistic approach and if you visit Burberry’s interactive website, Art of the Trench you will be greeted with songs from the featured artistes of Burberry Acoustic. I think that this is a brilliant idea and a win-win scenario for both parties! If you’re into the local fashion scene, I believe KIN is gonna do something similar too. Exciting stuff indeed!

Gareth Pugh does it again with another video to showcase his Fall/Winter 2011 collection at the recent Pitti Immagine fair-event. Read more about it here!

In other recent news, to kick off the Menswear Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show, the Ermenegildo Zegna Menswear Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show was shown with a giant green screen as a backdrop. Yes much like the one used in making movies. Talk about breaking new grounds; the scene featured the Great Wall of China in celebration of the brand’s 20-year partnership/collaboration with China. View the entire collection here.

Film and fashion, music and fashion, art and fashion, architecture and fashion, dance and fashion. How else can we reinvent the way fashion is presented to the world in this new decade of the 21st century? How much further can we push these accustomed ways and take that extra step to be different? Do we wait with bated breathe or expect the usual? Let’s hope for the former.

That is the title of SHOWstudio.com‘s latest film project and the first film from the project. Short films will be created by contributors such as Lady Gaga, Lily Cole, Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh and other leading personalities to celebrate a specific part of the human body. This series has just debuted this summer, and will air every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I think it is a brilliant idea- a fashion on film series and none other than SHOWstudio.com’s director and visionary photographer Nick Knight to start the ball rolling. Click HERE to watch the first film of the series- Right Hand by NIck Knight. It is high time we had more of fashion in that kind of media.

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FASHION SLOP does not claim ownership over all images and videos in this site unless otherwise stated and will oblige to remove any images and videos upon request of the original copyright holder.
Header image is Daria Werbowy, shot by Dusan Reljin for Numéro Tokyo August 2007.